Setting Up an SMTP server on a Windows Server 2003 Box.

You can use IIS SMTP if you wish. Just install the component from Add/Remove components in Add/remove programs. How you get the emails to IIS SMTP is something you need to look at in your application - there are various ways of doing it.

The actual setup of SMTP is fairly straight forward. If you want to send email out using a port 25 send (instead of say dropping a file in to a location for the SMTP engine to pick up) then you will need to allow relaying, probably from 127.0.0.1 or preferably by sending authentication credentials to the server.

The only other things you need to do is ensure that the server has a valid reverse DNS address and is announcing itself correctly. This is done on the properties of IIS SMTP through IIS Admin, on the Delivery Tab, Advanced in the FQDN box.

However if you are sending bulk email, then how are you going to deal with the bounces and unsubscribe requests? What about the email that is rejected at the point of delivery? If you don't, then the server will get blacklisted. Managing the rejections or having an attitude of "all our email is requested" etc will not help. (I am not saying you do, but newcomers to bulk or those in sales and marketing who don't understand it often have that mindset - our email isn't spam is another common mindset - but one persons marketing message is another's spam to be blocked). People forget that they have signed up, or move jobs and don't unsubscribe. Then you get those who just flag anything that is even remotely marketing or bulk like as spam.

Then there is the issue that IIS SMTP (and Exchange for that matter) is a poor bulk emailing tool.
You would be better of finding something else that can do the job for you, which includes handling the rejections. There are bulk software applications available which will also be more efficient. The SMTP engine in IIS isn't designed for bulk emailing, so unfortunately will use resources, bandwidth and processing power when you send out a mass email, because it is designed to work that way. It is designed to deliver the messages as quickly as possible, not to sit in the background.

-M

Thank you for responding.
I had a feeling that the built in IIS SMTP would not be adequet to process bulk emails. I guess I was right.
Getting black listed is a major concern. That is the reason we are encountering the email problems within our network. So I want to do my best to avoid getting black listed.

As part of the process, when we send out the emails there will be a "Do not email me" link for the user to unsubscribe. The link will add them to our list of people we don't email. I'm not sure how to handle the emails that get bounced back. I would like to do that but I haven't got a clue how to trap for it.
I am willing to pay for a good application that will handle bulk email and deal with the bounce backs. Does anybody have suggestions on what is best tool for that?

The freesmtp link that drequinox was kind enough to provide did not mention bulk emails so it may not be what I need.
Also should I put the SMTP server on my staging box to eleviate cpu cycles on my production web server or does that not even matter?
-Eddie
 

Thanks Mestha, could you elaborate a little on the method of using a sub domain?
How is that beneficial? What is the execution process of such a system?
-Eddie
 

I don't know what else there is to say.
By using a subdomain, all email for that domain goes to your email distribution server, rather than your production server. It should make the subscription list look after itself, rather than requiring manual intervention. Plus it separates the traffic.

-M

Thank you.